COMPOSER’S NOTE

The sixth piece from Songs of Innocence collection, A Cradle Song aims to compliment the deep beauty of William Blake’s text. 

Essentially a lullaby, the ‘song’ aims to create a sense of sweetness and calm with its rocking piano figurations and flowing melody.  Into this structure is woven a whole range of emotions – sheer delight in the newborn, a mother’s protectiveness, the pain of motherhood – and a sense that the whole experience is a gift from God.  For me, the phrase ‘Sweet babe in thy face, Holy image can I trace‘ sums up the poem’s sentiments.  

For the full beauty of the text to be conveyed, a performance should maintain the flowing rhythms and phrases of the music, free from mannered changes in dynamic and tempo.

The Sheet Music for the complete collection of Songs of Innocence and the other standalone work The Lamb is also available.

Click here for more information on Songs of Innocence >

COMPOSER’S NOTE

This setting of Psalm 96 (Sing unto the Lord) was commissioned by the saxophonist Christian Forshaw.  It makes use of the lines of the original Gregorian plainsong for the psalm and the haunting sound of the baritone saxophone and organ create an atmosphere of England’s distant monastic past.  Writing this, I had in mind the images of the great religious foundations destroyed during the Reformation, particularly Fountains and Rievaulx Abbeys.

Cantate Domino appeared on my album Fair Albion.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

I used my brother Andrew’s words for this piece which is essentially a Hymn to the Virgin.  The dense choral texture and the occasional false relation intensify the emotional impact of a devotional piece, tenderly accompanied by harp and cello.

Dressed in Blue appeared on my debut album Blue in Blue.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

On the 23rd August 1914 the Battle of Mons took place – the first major conflict between the British and the Germans in World War I.  During this battle more than a hundred British soldiers claim to have witnessed the vision of an angel which guided them to safety.  I wrote The Angel of Mons to depict this event and the drama between the angel, the soldiers and the loved ones at home.  

For King and Country – using text by my brother Andrew – is the opening movement and conveys the men relinquishing their peacetime duties and leaving their families behind to fight for their country.  It depicts the early optimism at the outbreak of the war, the soldiers’ heroism and their ‘honest wills to God and right entrusting’.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

A bright, festive arrangement of the well-known Dutch carol written for the girls of the Charterhouse Choir.

Each verse provides variation and contrast with the intricate, playful organ underpinning the soprano and alto textures.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

On the 23rd August 1914 the Battle of Mons took place – the first major conflict between the British and the Germans in World War I.  During this battle more than a hundred British soldiers claim to have witnessed the vision of an angel which guided them to safety.  I wrote The Angel of Mons to depict this event and the drama between the angel, the soldiers and the loved ones at home.  

Let Them Give Thanks is the closing movement and the libretto is adapted from the words of Psalm 107 sung alongside the well-known hymn ‘Glory to thee, my God, this night’ by Thomas Ken.  Sung by the tenors and basses, the psalm conveys the soldier’s prayers of thanks for the divine assistance and safe deliverance from a terrible situation.  The hymn, sung by the sopranos and altos at the same time as the psalm is being sung, symbolises the evening prayers of the wives, fiancées and mothers left at home.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

A Christmas Carol designed for little ones!

With words by my brother Andrew, the melody is easily memorable and the simple part writing makes this perfect for small children accomapanied by flowing piano patterns and festive atmosphere of innocence.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

Love’s Promise is the opening piece from the collection Song of Songs and depicts the yearning of the lover for her beloved and the hope of love.

The collection of love poetry which forms the Old Testament’s Song of Songs has always presented a conundrum to scholars.  The orthodox understanding of its presence in the Canon of Scripture was the widespread use in the Prophets of the concept of God as the husband of Israel.  For the Christian mystical tradition, the dialogue between the lover and the beloved gave voice to the relationship of the soul to Christ.  Bernard of Clairvaux preached over fifty sermons on them!  Jesus called himself ‘the Bridegroom’ giving authority to this reading.  Some have seen Mary the Mother of Jesus in the references to the ‘room where my mother conceived me’.

The relationship of romantic and erotic love to spirituality is the subject of the Song of Songs collection.  They express desire, hope, confusion and joy; the whole range of emotions experienced by the lover – but there is no final consummation.  The metaphors of vine, wine, garden and fountain are ones that prefigure the language of Christian spirituality.  They provide Christian spirituality with a language of love that is both sensual and spiritual, of earth and of heaven.  The text for these songs is faithful to the text of the Bible but poetic licence has provided a narrative structure and the development of some metaphors.  The cry of the lover to the beloved, the heightening of the senses through sumptuous smells and tastes, and the imagery of fire provide a rich basis for a certain type of music – music born out of our time, yes, but which also draws upon the timelessness of tonality, consonance and balance.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

On the 23rd August 1914 the Battle of Mons took place – the first major conflict between the British and the Germans in World War I.  During this battle more than a hundred British soldiers claim to have witnessed the vision of an angel which guided them to safety.  I wrote The Angel of Mons to depict this event and the drama between the angel, the soldiers and the loved ones at home.  

Out of the Depths – using text adapted from Psalm 130 –  first conveys the prayers of the wives, fiancées and mothers left at home: the angel responds with words of reassurance.  Next, the soldiers themselves sing of their longing for divine assistance.  The angel appears once more as the prayers of the men and women alike combine in a final climax.  The piece subsides into quiet prayer asking the Lord for mercy.

This piece also featured on my No.1-selling album Angel recorded with the Choir of New College Oxford and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

This original version for solo soprano and SATB choir first appeared on my debut album Blue in Blue in 2004.  It was subsequently recorded by Hayley Westenra for her Number-One-selling album Odyssey and, in 2014, Patrick was approached by Voces8 to produce a version for them with saxophone which featured on their Number-One-selling album Eventide.

The words, by my brother Andrew, express a heartfelt longing for the joys of heaven – a happiness to be shared in a future moment of meeting.  The ecstasy of this moment is certainly underlined by the soprano line, with the repetition of key words ‘mane‘, ‘gaudia‘ and ‘conventus‘ deepening the intensity of the yearning for bliss.

From 2006-2007 I was Classic FM’s composer in residence, and was commissioned to write twelve calming pieces for piano.  For the resulting album – Towards The Light – I arranged a piano version of Quanta Qualia as a bonus track.

There are also arrangements for Pedal Harp and Lever Harp.